


9 - Shackled

by VickeyStar



Series: Whumptober 2019 [9]
Category: Magnum P.I. (TV 2018)
Genre: Almost Drowning, Juliet Higgins Whump, Whumptober 2019, magician, unconventional use of bra underwire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 05:06:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20960966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VickeyStar/pseuds/VickeyStar
Summary: “I think I’m surrounded by glass, and my feet are restrained.” She tries moving them, the harsh sound of chains filling the air as she stands with one hand on the glass wall.





	9 - Shackled

She wakes in darkness.

Juliet sits up, leaning against what seems to be glass as her eyes make imaginary shapes in the pitch black around her.

She shivers, the air artificially cooled, wherever she is, and speaks.

“Hello?”

There’s a moment of silence, then a reply.

“Juliet?”

Her eyebrow lifts.

“Thomas, are you alright?”

“I can’t see and I’m definitely tied up. Other than that, I’m fine. You?”

She takes a moment to self-assess.

“I think I’m surrounded by glass, and my feet are restrained.” She tries moving them, the harsh sound of chains filling the air as she stands with one hand on the glass wall.

“Any idea what happened?” Thomas asks, and she thinks.

“The magician.”

He lets out a long-suffering sigh, realizing the same thing she did.

“This is the last time I take a case involving magic.” He decides, then and there.

Noise fills the air as Juliet messes with her shackles, trying to find the locks so she can try to pick them.

That’s when the lights turn on, blinding the pair for a moment.

When her eyes clear, she can see Thomas on the other side of the glass cube, tied down on a chair with duct tape.

“I’d wish for a little more magic.”

They both turn toward the third voice, seeing the very same magician they’d been talking about near her containment.

“Hope you can do it!”

She flips a switch, and Juliet becomes vividly aware of the water that rapidly begins to fill the tank.

“Hey! Let her go!” She hears Thomas yell, already busy working her bra off under her shirt as the magician runs away.

The water fills the tank quickly, Higgins pulling her bra off under her shirt and working to get the underwire out.

“Juliet, you gotta hurry. I don’t see a lid.” Thomas informs her, forced to watch as the water fills the tank. It’s at her waist when she finally gets the underwire to poke out of the bra, ruining the stitches.

The ex-MI6 agent takes a deep breath, diving under the water and toward her legs.

When she sees her ankles, she curses internally.

_Who puts ten locks on chains? _

_Magicians. _

_Because of course they do. _

She doesn’t bother rolling her eyes, getting to work on the first lock as her breath slowly runs out.

She gets through five before she needs to return to the surface, not sparing a moment to acknowledge Thomas’s encouragement before diving back under.

She knows that’s the last breath she’ll be able to take, until she’s freed.

Juliet gets the shackles off, the water now filling the tank so she’s floating a few feet off of the ground.

“I don’t see the top!” She shouts, looking around. The water lifts her up further, closer to the roof of the bright room that the two are trapped in.

“I don’t, either!” Is the reply, and she looks over to see that he’s knocked his chair over in the hopes of breaking it, and it seems to be working.

She looks back up just in time for her nose to slam into something solid.

The water is at her neck when she shouts to Thomas.

“Found the top!”

He’s freeing himself from the chair when she shouts, watches as she takes one final breath before the water completely fills the tank.

“Hang on!” She sees more than hears him shout as he heads to the lever that the magician had pulled.

Juliet pushes herself to the ground, grabbing the chains and wrapping them around her knuckle. She wraps another around her leg, anchoring her to the ground as she punches the glass.

A look at Thomas tells her that the lever’s a dead end, so this is her only hope.

He grabs a broken chair leg, the wood likely splintering his hands as he swings at the glass.

That’s when she spots the door, right behind him.

Nothing in this room will help her, hopefully something out there will.

She bangs on the glass for his attention, pointing frantically at the door when she has it.

“I’m not leaving you.” He denies, having reached the same idea she had.

_You’ll come back_, she thinks, and she knows he can see it in her eyes.

She watches him run away, the need to breathe growing as the water still surrounds her.

She feels the lightheadedness set in even more as her eyes slip closed, barely registering the muffled sound of a gun firing.

The glass cage shatters around her, water carrying her body a few inches over the shards as hands roughly grab her shoulders.

“Higgins? C’mon, girl, come back to me.” Thomas shouts, and she sputters a cough.

“There she is.” He encourages, turning her on her side as she coughs.

“Find an exit?” She asks after a minute, Thomas helping her to her feet and keeping a steadying hand on her forearm.

“Yeah. C’mon.”

They make their way to the exit, already plotting ways of catching that damn magician.

edn


End file.
